25-Year Power Purchase Agreement Approved for 7 MW Giant King Grass Renewable Energy Biogas Power Plant on St. Croix
03 Luglio 2013 - 1:00PM
Marketwired
VIASPACE Inc. -- (OTCQB: VSPC) today announced that the Virgin
Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) Governing Board approved a
25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Tibbar Energy USVI, LLC
for a biomass energy project on St. Croix. According to a joint
press release from WAPA and Tibbar, the St. Croix based woman owned
renewable energy company, will generate and sell to the utility
seven (7) megawatts (MW) of base load power generated from Giant
King Grass. Tibbar will average savings below WAPA's avoided cost
which is the amount WAPA would spend to produce the same amount of
energy using oil as it does today.
Tania Tomyn, Tibbar Energy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said,
"We look forward to supplying renewable energy at a lower cost to
the people and businesses of St. Croix." Tibbar's process will
consist of growing Giant King Grass, a non-invasive, USDA approved
agricultural energy crop on 1,500 acres which will then be fed to
the anaerobic digestion facility. The naturally occurring
biological process of anaerobic digestion creates bio-gas which is
then fed into biogas generators to generate the 7 MW of power that
will be sold to the local utility.
Tomyn continued, "This Power Purchase Agreement approval is a
major milestone for our company, and having Giant King Grass as a
reliable, dedicated feedstock for our anaerobic digester is key to
our project. We first met VIASPACE two years ago and decided to
explore Giant King Grass and we found it was the right energy crop
after being involved with the California nursery and testing. We
signed a contract with them in 2012. We have been successfully
growing Giant King Grass on St. Croix since October 2012. I want to
thank VIASPACE for its technical support."
The project will be built and generating power by June 2015, as
required by the PPA with WAPA, Tomyn said. Tibbar Energy is working
with Layne Heavy Civil, Inc. based in Mission Woods, KS, one of
North America's largest waste water treatment engineering,
construction and procurement contractors. Layne has a strategic
partnership with entec biogas gmbh of Austria which has built over
100 biogas plants worldwide. Layne specializes in project and
schedule guaranteed projects. Most of the preliminary design has
been completed over the last year by Layne and entec.
WAPA Executive Director, Hugo V. Hodge, Jr. said that the
utility is excited to be part of a project using cutting edge
technology, the first of its kind in the Caribbean region. "This
project is very compatible with our energy road map, the energy
production action plan issued by the Authority's Governing Board
last year and Governor John P. DeJongh's mandate to reduce the use
of fossil fuel in the territory 60% by 2025," Hodge said. "We are
on our way to offering definite relief to our customers from the
high rates primarily attributed to our 100% dependency on fossil
fuel to make power and water," said Hodge.
Anaerobic digestion mimics the process in a cow's stomach to
produce bio methane (a naturally occurring biological process)
which is then used in an engine generator set to produce clean
renewable and low carbon electricity. The byproduct of anaerobic
digestion is organic fertilizer which will be put back on the Giant
King Grass fields. Anaerobic digestion is an extremely mature
technology. Many thousands of anaerobic digestion power plants are
in operation in Europe providing electricity to 3 million homes in
Germany alone.
VIASPACE Giant King Grass can be used in power plants to produce
high-pressure steam that turns a turbine to produce 10 to 35 MW of
electricity, or as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion power
plants. The VIASPACE project in Nicaragua is a 12 MW plant using
Giant King Grass.
VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen stated, "Our congratulations go
to Tibbar. Together we are pioneers in clean renewable energy in
the Caribbean, and this project is a major step forward. You hear a
lot about solar and wind energy and they have a significant role to
play. But solar and wind are intermittent energy and can only play
a marginal role because there is no way to store electricity on a
large scale. Tibbar's project is base load power and integral to
the islands grid."
Dr. Kukkonen continued, "VIASPACE has licensed the Giant King
Grass to Tibbar and will receive license fee revenue for the
duration of the 25 year Power Purchase Agreement. Because of its
very high yield, Giant King Grass is a lower cost feedstock for
Tibbar then other alternative feedstocks. Tibbar gets a reliable
and well-characterized feedstock and saves money by paying the
license fee to VIASPACE. The people of St. Croix get reliable clean
electricity at a substantially lower cost than they are paying
today. They also create jobs for their people and the money stays
on St. Croix instead of going overseas to pay for oil. The planet
gets lower carbon emissions. This is a unique win - win - win - win
situation, and this is the model that VIASPACE is pursuing around
the globe. We plan to replicate this model and build many Giant
King Grass plantations integrated with power plants -- thus
providing low cost, clean and renewable electricity for our
customers and profits for our investors. We welcome inquiries from
other countries and regions that can benefit from Giant King Grass
based electricity today and from biofuels, biochemicals and
biomaterials in the future."
VIASPACE Chairman, Dr. Kevin Schewe, commented, "We are
extremely proud to be working with Tibbar Energy on St. Croix with
this technologically-modern, carbon-neutral, green energy, 7MW
anaerobic digestion power plant. VIASPACE Giant King Grass is the
highest yielding, continuously renewable, biomass platform in the
world and it is the perfect solution for the energy needs of
tropical island nations or countries that depend on imported oil to
create base power for local electricity. We at VIASPACE are very
busy making the effort to show the world a new concept called:
'Growing Your Electricity'. We believe that, in the very near
future, people from around the world will look at our projects in
St. Croix and Nicaragua and recognize that they were the
forerunners of a new wave of carbon neutral, continuously
renewable, clean energy production that is second only to coal in
cost effectiveness but carries the larger benefit of carbon
neutrality. From a global benefit perspective, in lieu of using
fossil fuels, every one of our future projects will have a positive
impact on global warming. The timing is perfect for the adaptation
and global expansion of our technology."
About VIASPACE Inc. VIASPACE grows
renewable Giant King™ Grass as a low-carbon fuel for clean
electricity generation; for environmentally friendly energy
pellets; and as a feedstock for bio-methane production and for
green cellulosic biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials. Giant
King Grass is a proprietary, high yield, dedicated biomass clean
energy crop that does not compete with or displace food production.
For more information, please go to www.VIASPACE.com or contact Dr.
Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or
IR@VIASPACE.com.
Safe Harbor Statement Information in this
news release includes forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements relate to future events or future
performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements to be materially different
from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. Such factors include, without limitation, risks
outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, including Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2012, and other factors over which VIASPACE
has little or no control.
Dr. Jan Vandersande Director of Communications 800-517-8050
IR@VIASPACE.com
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